Award Data

Renewable energy sources include electrical generators driven by steam from geothermal sources. Submersible pumps with extended service lives are required to improve the economics of today¿s geothermal systems. A major problem is corrosive wear experienced by the pump bearings, when the lubricating brine becomes contaminated with fine sand particles. Typically, the bearings are hardened with WC/C ...

Better permanent magnets are needed to improve the performance of advanced motors for hybrid electric vehicles. In response to this need, this project will develop high performance permanent magnets with improved magnetic properties at temperatures up to 240 degrees C, high electrical resistivity to reduce eddy current losses in advanced motor applications, and low cost. In Phase I, feasibility ...

Compared with conventional processes used to produce many oxygenated chemicals, processes based on the selective catalytic oxidation of alkanes to produce oxygenates could yield enormous economic, energy, and environmental benefits. However, commercial development of such processes has been hindered, in part, because the excessive heat released by alkane oxidation causes over-oxidation (burning) ...

The production of biodiesel around the world is increasing at an astonishing pace. In the U.S., total annual production capacity is expected to be almost 2 billion gallons by the end of 2008. At this production rate, over 660,000 metric tons of glycerol will be produced as a by-product each year ¿ over 2.5 times the current U.S. glycerol production capacity ¿ creating a glycerol glut with few ...

Due to the economics, politics and environmental impacts of petroleum use, there is growing interest in the use of biomass to partially replace petroleum as an energy source. However, in order to utilize biomass as a feedstock for the production of fuel or chemical products, its structure needs to be significantly altered to facilitate the efficient completion of downstream steps. This alteration ...

It is now an accepted fact that global warming due to greenhouse gases is occurring and could have a devastating effect for future life on earth. The need for the United States to plan, develop, and implement alternative, clean energy technologies is critical. In particular, the photovoltaic generation of electricity from the sun is a sustainable, elegant, clean, and practical source of usable e ...

Improvements to the superconducting magnets used in high energy physics experiments will depend on increasing the critical current density and stability of Nb3Sn superconductor wire. Major improvements in the performance of Nb3Sn wire can be achieved by reducing the effective filament size, deff, in order to reduce flux jumping and magnet instability. The deff can be reduced by increasing the numb ...

This project will develop a cost-effective analytical technology platform for identifying and measuring concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide and trace greenhouse gas constituents such as carbon monoxide. The proposed analytical platform is based on Penning Ionization Electron Spectroscopy (PIES) in plasma. PIES technology relies on a simple analog ...

While lithium-ion batteries are rapidly penetrating the laptop and cell-phone markets because of their high specific energy, safety is one of the key challenges to be addressed before lithium-ion batteries can replace the nickel-metal-hydride batteries that are commonly used in today¿s Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs). The major safety concern is the possibility of an internal short-circuit, due t ...

One of the responsibilities of the United States for the international ITER fusion project is to provide a motional Stark effect system for measuring the internal magnetic field profile. The measurement system will be necessary for plasma control and will enable the study of stability and transport. This project will design a complete and reliable in situ cali¬bration system to ensure the accur ...